University of Virginia Library

Democrats Reynolds, Miller Survive
First GOP State Win In Century

By Rod MacDonald
Cavalier Daily Staff Writer

Governor-Elect Linwood Holton

Virginia's voters buried the bloody
shirt of the Civil War for the first time
since 1885 yesterday by electing Republican
Linwood Holton to the Governorship
with about 53 per cent of the vote.

Democratic candidate William Battle,
unable to hold together his shaky Tidewater-Byrd
machine coalition, won one
race too few as he failed to mobilize
Democratic voters to his candidacy and
trailed with 45 per cent.

At the same time, Governor-elect
Holton will have to deal with Democratic
legislature, Lieutenant Governor, and
Attorney General, as the state returned
its Democratic assembly to office and
elected J. Sargeant Reynolds to the
second spot and Andrew P. Miller to the
third.

Mr. Holton had 374,630 votes at
midnight, for 53 per cent of the total
vote, with 73 per cent of the precincts
having reported. Mr. Battle had 317,349
votes, for 45 per cent, and three minor
candidates shared the remaining two per
cent.

Reynolds Wins

With 56 per cent of the vote counted,
Mr. Reynolds, to whom UPI conceded
victory at 10:05 p.m., had 280,467 votes for 53
per cent with Republican H. D. Dawbarn
trailing at 227,262 votes for 43 per cent.

Mr. Miller's lead fluctuated and proved
unstable but he retained his narrow margin with
269,203 votes for 50 per cent, leading
Republican Richard Obenshain at 227,262
votes for 48 per cent.

The Holton victory was a major surprise as
pollsters had predicted a narrow Battle victory
last week and held that prediction until
yesterday. It was attributed in many quarters as
a victory for President Richard Nixon, who had
endorsed Mr. Holton and had addressed the
nation on election v. Many observers also
hailed the win as the "death" of the Byrd
machine.

Machine Fails

Mr. Holton took an early lead and was never
headed as he won some areas that had been
considered Democratic for years. Many rural
counties, strongholds of the Byrd machine,
failed to deliver for Mr. Battle and went
Republican.

But the big margin came from the areas on
which Mr. Battle had relied — the cities. The
Tidewater area where Henry Howell was
supposedly to provide hefty support for Mr.
Battle, broke about even as Virginia Beach,
Hampton, and Newport News went for Mr.
Holton, and the Democratic victories in
Norfolk and Portsmouth were too small to
make up the difference.

The central areas also went Republican:
Roanoke and Roanoke County, and Lynchburg
all turned in solid Republican majorities. Salem,
where President Richard Nixon spoke last
week, returned a 72 per cent majority for
candidate Holton.

Charlottesville and Albemarle County, Mr.
Battle's home area, went barely Democratic, as
the Democrats' victory margin in the entire
county was only 135 votes.

United Press International predicted a
Holton victory at 10 p.m., as did the National
Broadcasting Company. Both also forecast a
Reynolds win at that time, but neither put a
flat prediction on the line for the race for
Attorney General.

The election is considered a victory for the
"Southern strategy" of President Nixon, who
appeared on television Monday night in a
pre-election telecast. Although no one could
assess the actual impact of the non-political
speech, its timing probably resulted in the
Republican's surprising triumph, exceeding
nearly all pre-election forecasts.

Varied Reaction

Here in Charlottesville, the reaction was
varied. Members of the Kappa Sigma fraternity,
carrying pins for each candidate, left the Battle
headquarters at a motel before 10 p.m. to
attend the Holton cocktail party at Alumni
Hall, sporting the green Republican pins.

Charlottesville's Republicans, able to sip the
first victory bourbon in a Byrd-dominated era,
were jubilant at their Alumni Hall headquarters.
A large crowd of Young Republicans, Young
Americans for Freedom and city Republicans
had moved in for a celebration party.

By 9:30 the group had declared victory over
a local radio station, singing the "Good Old
Song" on the station for good measure. Rick
Brownfield, the club's executive secretary,
headed for Richmond to attend the state-wide
party for Governor-elect Holton.

Mr. Brownfield, who managed the local YR
efforts in three precincts, had provided 80
workers on Election Day to "work within the
structure of the local Republican Party."